aka: Hero System

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Along with Villains & Vigilantes, this groundbreaking game published by Hero Games essentially created the genre of Super Heroroleplaying in the early 1980s; and unlike many of its contemporaries is still going strong, with Hero Games releasing a new edition of the core rules in early 2010.

In addition to spearheading support for an entire genre, Champions has also been influential as the first and most well-developed Tabletop Game to use point-based character creation, allowing players to precisely define their characters using a budget of points which were spent on powers and attributes whose costs were play-balanced against each other. It specifically introduced the concept of acquiring character flaws in order to gain extra points. It was also one of the first RPGs to do away with character classes, and the first RPG to do away with character levels. These innovations heralded what is sometimes called the Second Generation of RPG design; most modern roleplaying games use a variation of character points in defining their characters (Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games specifically credits Champions for shaping and guiding his thoughts when he began developing GURPS). Champions itself went on to become the skeleton to two other universal systems by the end of the 1990s: the HERO System, and Fuzion.

By the middle 1990s, Champions faced a fair amount of competition in its genre — while V&V seemed to have faded (mostly) into obscurity, there were other challengers: Mayfair Games' DC Heroes and TSR's Marvel Super Heroes were both licensed properties which allowed players to run familiar comic book characters, and GURPS Supers was already in its second edition, as was Palladium's Heroes Unlimited. In 2001, a group of investors led by Dark Champions developer Steven Long bought out the rights to the game and published a fifth edition of the Hero rules, which remains in print as of 2009. A sixth edition of the rules was released at GenCon in August 2009. While many earlier games have fallen by the wayside, Champions continues to thrive, and continues to inspire new games, like White Wolf's Aberrant.

The intellectual property rights to the Champions setting are now held by Cryptic Studios, the original developers of the MMORPGCity of Heroes. They bought the setting outright rather than licensing it, and it is now used as the setting of their new game, Champions Online. The IP is licensed back to the original developers (who still own the underlying Hero System) for the pen-and-paper game. (Cryptic themselves are now owned by Perfect World Enterprises.)

Also, in 2008, Hero Games brought out a licensed supplement for the PS238 setting. It contains a simplified version of the Hero System rules for players just starting to use Hero System.

Doctor Destroyer is Doctor Doom, only without any mystic elements and a much-reduced sense of honor and nobility, and with his origin story switched to 'ex-Nazi mad scientist'. In later appearances as his power level gets ramped up he starts to serve the story function of Thanos or Darkseid, complete with fanatically loyal super powered minions that can solo player groups.

The first edition of Champions II gave the Destroyermobile as an example for its vehicle rules; it was driven by "the Darkknight Destroyer".

Early editions of Champions also had a sample hero character named Crusader, who was Batman without the arsenal of gadgets.

Mechanon is Ultron; however, in the current edition he has moved away from his directly copied origins. Mechanon also share similarities with Comic Book/Brainiac, particularly the Bronze-Age skeletal one.

Empress Istvatha V’han's appearance, personality are similar to Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, while her powers of time and dimensional travel and modus operandi of conquering entire dimensions makes her similar to the Avenger's foe, Kang the Conqueror.

Meteor Man is the Green Lantern, both in terms of powers, elements of his origin and being a "Legacy" character. The Russian villain Cosmo shares some similarities with Guy Gardner.

The Infinity Man is clearly based on the Beyonder.

While he has a very different origin, Amphibian has similar powers and costume to Aquaman.

Eurostar were once described as "Evil X-Men" due to several mutant members; Durak (Colossus), Mentalla (Jean Grey) and Bora (Storm).

VIPER is largely inspired by HYDRA, but its current version draws a lot of influence from Cobra, including the uniform design of its soldiers.

ARGENT is similarly inspired by AIM; the older RAVEN from 4th Edition was more so.

GENOCIDE is similar to Marvel's various anti-mutant groups, complete with Sentinel-like Minutemen Robots. The IHA that took their place is less transparently evil and opposed to superhumans in general, not just mutants.

UNTIL was also similar to S.H.I.E.L.D., right down to the I in both names standing for International.

Tyrannon has qualities of the Anti-Monitor, Trigon and the Dread Dormammu, while having enough differences to remain unique.

Icestar/Frost is Iceman without the shiny coat.

The Brain Trust is rather like DC's Brotherhood of Evil, being led as it is by a disembodied brain in a tank whose chief henchman is a gun-packing gorilla.

Subverted some with Orion, whose origin is so close to Green Lantern's it's almost satirical...up until the point where a two-bit thug knocks him out and steals his cosmically-powerful weapons.

Dr. Silverback draws obvious inspiration from DC's Gorilla Grodd for his origin, but in personality and temperament he's more like the X-Men's Beast. Note that in the video game, he most commonly appears as a blue hologram.

Although he started as a parody of Batman (with a face mask resembling Wolverine's), Foxbat now has an awful lot in common with Deadpool.

Ambadassador: The Consul from Kingdom of Champions. He is an 8 foot tall, super strong blue robot who was built by an alien race to serve as their ambassador to Earth. As Britain was the greatest empire on Earth at the time when the aliens first encountered the planet, he dresses and talks like a Victorian English diplomat. He is also a member of Britain's premier superhero team.

Ammunition Backpack: The Gadgets! supplement had several weapons with these and Enemies had the supervillain Blowtorch with a flamethrower attached to a fuel-filled backpack.

Several "heroic" villains such as Bluejay, Lady Blue and Floodgate. Who are all blondes who wear blue costumes. Hmm.

About the only Master Villain like this, genuinely, is Istvatha V'han, out of sheer force of Affably Evil: She seems to regard being a Multiversal Conqueror as a public service more than anything-though she's still rather vain and temperamental. This has proven to be an overall plus to her schemes, since her subjects genuinely like her. The supplement Book of the Empress has since revealed that she's more of a Villain with Good Publicity than she is Anti-Villain, in that if push comes to shove she's entirely willing to rationalize almost any atrocity if it's really necessary for her own benefit up to and including destroying her entire original timeline, so that she can no longer be attacked by time travellers aiming at her origin. On an everyday level she still largely functions as an Anti-Villain, due to her being in a secure enough position that she doesn't usually need to get really dirty to survive.

Auto Doc: Often found in bases belonging to organizations with superpowered members. Frequently operated by the base A.I..

Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: The villain Retrograde from High Tech Enemies dresses like an early Victorian dandy. This fits as he has a hatred of modern technology and possesses the power to transform high tech devices into low tech, non-functioning equivalents.

Awesomeness-Induced Amnesia: In the supplement Champions III, Mystery Powers was an optional rule that allowed the game master to spend some of a character's points on a power that neither the character nor the player knew about. The example given was of a character with a power that would activate whenever they were in great danger. It would hopefully deal with the threat, but would also cause the character to have no memory of what happened.

Badass Normal: Numerous examples throughout the world, such as Nighthawk, Green Dragon, Seeker, Utility and Thunderbird. Binder is a particularly noteworthy example; he gets his badass points for taking on superheroes with a Glue Gun - and winning (specifically, he's on a team with a couple of very powerful energy-blasting types—he sets the heroes up and his buddies fry them).

Bewitched Amphibians: In the 5th and 6th editions, the superheroine Witchcraft is built as a standard superhero-mage ... but has a spell to turn people into frogs. One of the "cure" conditions is even being kissed.

Bilingual Bonus: Dr. Destroyer's civilian last name, Zerstoiten, is very similar to the German word for "destroy", zerstören.

Hero System Bestiary. The Living Jelly was a large monster that grew even larger (up to 128 meters high) when it ate other living things. It grabbed other creatures and used acid to dissolve them and eat them. At their largest size they could move faster than a normal human being could run.

Fantasy Hero Companion. An Amorphous Horror demon is a mass of protean ooze with five pseudopods (Combat Tentacles).

In the Introduction to Champions II he talks directly to the reader, demanding that he be sent all of their characters' unused experience pointa.

In Champions Online he asks the player to talk to the GM about changing his spawn point and one of the loading screens rambles on about how Foxbat is the 'best supervillain ever', with a bit at the end about how he's smart enough that he could hack into an online game's database and change around the profile information... "Not that he would ever do so, of course."

Supplement Fantasy Hero Companion. Dragons and Hydras can have a breath weapon that is a 4d6 fire Killing Attack, which can badly burn a normal human being.

Clay and metal golems can breathe out a cone of fire four times per day.

Burn The Orphanage: The supervillainess Bora in Enemies II blows down the orphanage she grew up in.

Burning the Ships: In the history of the Tuala Morn setting (for Fantasy Hero), the ancestors of the Tualans were refugees hunting for a new homeland. Once they decided to settle in Tuala Morn, their leader scuttled their ships as a sacrifice to the sea gods, thanking them for their aid.

Several villains who existed mainly for laughs and to get beat up, such as Bulldozer and Power Crusher.

The Destroyers (later Deathstroke) started out as a fairly generic villain team, but as the setting was developed they devolved into an entire team of Butt Monkeys, even hiring an image consultant in an attempt to help them seem impressive again. After the continuity reboot they were brought back but they'd lost two-thirds of their membership in an especially disastrous stroke of bad luck. The survivors have been in jail so long hardly anybody remembers them anymore.

Canada, Eh?: Strongly averted in the Champions of the North supplement, as the historical and modern Canada sections of the book are basically essays conveying more actual information about real Canada than most Americans likely know, and a large number of heroes and villains running the gamut of the power scale (from street-level to world-threatening master villains) with relatively few stereotypes.

Despite being rendered Discontinuity, three Champions: New Millennium characters, Cateran, Hummingbird and Tungerak, were incorporated into the Fifth Edition Champions universe. Also Floodgate from European Enemies appeared in Champions Online.

The Millennium City Eight from Digital Hero, and by extension probably the Choir.

Quite a few characters from Champions Online have been added to the tabletop game, the most prominent being the Shadow Destroyer, and the Qularr and Gadroon being expanded from what were originally only passing reference in previous editions.

A common complaint against 5E and FRED was that, because of the way the point-costs of most powers worked, Bricks could be made much more efficient at what they did, much more cheaply, only having to pump strength (one point per level, assuming you weren't forced to take a disadvantage restricting you to human norms, and then still only double that after 20) and buy a couple defense powers (defense powers being, as a rule, cheaper than attack powers), thus tipping this argument heavily toward the Caveman end. And that's not even taking into account the fact that Bricks don't have to contend with the range modifier (although they do need a means of closing with their target).

Champions: New Millennium featured several older Champions characters under new names; Icestar became Frost, Rose became Orchid and Flare became Blaze.

In a more bizarre example, when Hero Games and Eclipse Comics, then publisher of a licensed Champions comic, parted ways, Eclipse retained a number of the Champions characters; however, many of them were renamed: Marksman became Huntsman, Rose became Psyche, Foxbat became the Flying Fox, Pulsar became Power Pulse and later Impulse, and Mechanon became the somewhat un-threatening Meka. Professor Muerte is still Professor Muerte. The main reason these guys were still used is that the 1st through 3rd edition characters were mostly owned by the creators of the characters. That is why Icestar, Psyche, Flare, Huntsman, Flying Fox, and the like still appear in Heroic Publishing's Champions comic books to this day.

Captain Ethnic: In some of the older sourcebooks, like Red Doom, Enemies: The International File, and European Enemies (especially European Enemies). Some of the former include telekinetic cosmonaut Sputnik, mentalist Perestroika, the nuclear-powered battlesuit wearer Tokamak, and Soyuz Proletariatski, who can create up to 250 clones of himself, but has no mind of his own and can only follow orders. Other examples include Shamrock, a former IRA member whose powers include Super Strength and preternatural luck, and whose archenemy is a leprechaun.

Cast From Stamina: Casting spells or using other powers normally uses up points of Endurance. They come back rapidly with rest, though.

Cat Girl: Lynx; a rabid anime fan and lover of Cat Girls turned supervillain after she got a genetic upgrade. She always wanted to be one and this being a super heroic world there was somebody who could make her one...pity he was evil.

Cloudcuckoolander: Foxbat. Dear god, Foxbat. Described as "an evil version of Adam West Batman".

Cold Iron: The Coriolis Effect. Ch'andarra and her daughter the Black Enchantress both take damage when touched by raw (cold) iron.

Combat Tentacles: Supplement Fantasy Hero Companion. An Amorphous Horror demon is a Blob Monster that has 5 pseudopods that can be used to grab opponents in combat.

Completely Off-Topic Report: In the Bad News for Doctor Drugs, one of the suggested player characters has an obsession with Genghis Khan and makes all of his reports about that subject, no matter what the homework assignment subject was.

Continuity Reboot: The Champions universe was rebooted in 5th Edition. Said Reboot also ignored the Dork Age that was the Champions New Millenium Reboot.

Damage-Sponge Boss: Most of the truly durable villains have enough other powers that they aren't pure damage sponges, but there are still a few "hyper-bricks" that only exist to pound on heroes, like Grond, Glacier, Obelisque and Ripper. Glacier is a particularly notable example; he reduces all damage dealt to him by 40 and takes a quarter of the result off his 120 stun. Keep in mind an average superhero's attack tends to do 40-60 damage.

Deadly Training Area: The supplement Champions II had rules for Danger Rooms. If the PCs wanted to, it was possible to set the level high enough to kill the person (or people) inside. If super villains invaded the base, one suggested tactic was to lure them into your Danger Room and turn it on full power.

Dead Person Impersonation: In the supplement Enemies II the supervillain Black Paladin is a warrior of an evil cult from the time of King Arthur. He was placed in an enchanted sleep and wakened by a college student in modern times. He murdered the student and assumed his identity.

Death Dealer: Card Shark from Dark Champions and Blackjack from European Enemies.

Demoted to Extra: Jaguar, who not only doesn't have a 5E counterpart in the Champions, but was also often omitted from the older team's lineup. And artists would often draw him as a werewolf, despite his name making it rather obvious that he's a Werejaguar.

Subverted with the villain Anubis, who's actually an agent of Set. As well as the actual Hades in the 4E book with sheets for the Greek gods, where it specifically says Hades isn't evil and isn't really interested in anything at all besides running the underworld.

In Golden Age Champions we got the Doberman, a goofy dog-themed villain who was previously an incompetent tomb robber before getting trapped in an ancient temple and being resurrected after calling out to Anubis for salvation. Why'd Anubis, "your basically good god", do that? Well, because it means Doberman gets to live, Anubis gets a worshiper, and rookie superheroes get an easy villain to practice on. Everybody wins!

Evil Luddite / Evil Reactionary: This is the shtick of the villain Retrograde in High Tech Enemies. His power allows him to transform high tech items into low tech, non-functioning equivalents, such as transforming a suit of Powered Armor into a suit of medieval knight's armour.

Mechanon's origins started off straightforward (he was meant to be the security guard of a hero team's base but crossed his wires and made it his mission to destroy humanity instead); however, over the years, they became convoluted and contradictory. With the 5th Edition Reboot, Mechanon's past became a mystery, with theories referencing all of his previous origins and more. (The Book of the Machine does at last give 5E Mechanon an origin.)

Grond has every possible origin story at once.

Expy: Besides the ones equivalents mentioned above, the Champions team have effectively served as expies of themselves over different editions. There have been five different versions of the Champions team, the first to third edition versions, the fourth edition version, the fifth and six edition versions and the Champions: New Millennium version. Each has included a male leader who uses technology (Defender, Marksman), a female mutant energy projector with light-based powers (Sapphire, Quantum and Flare), an alien brick (Ironclad and Obsidian; Behemoth was part demon, but close enough), a female mystic/mentalist (Witchcraft, Solitare and Rose) and a Badass Normal (Nighthawk, Seeker and Mercenary).

There are a number of groups in the 5th Edition universe that directly replace ones in the older continuity, such as ARGENT for RAVEN and the IHA for GENOCIDE.

From Camouflage To Criminal: Several of the supervillains were Vietnam veterans who put the contacts they made or the skills they used to work in a life of crime. The list of these characters includes Lazer, Death Commando, and Bullet.

While the names of "good guy" organizations like PRIMUS and UNTIL have meanings, even the members of evil organizations like VIPER and DEMON generally don't know what the names of their groups stand for.

In 5E, that's intentional for DEMON, since founder Luther Black doesn't want his minions knowing that his organization isn't merely a worldwide Satanic cult, but are tools to his goal of becoming a King of Edom; DEMON is an acronym formed form the first letters of the names of five Kings of Edom as written in a pre-human language (and then presumably transliterated into the modern alphabet).

Gamemaster: Not the first game to use this term — generic knock-offs of Dungeons & Dragons began using the term almost immediately — but perhaps the most well known, thus making Champions the Trope Namer.

Gang Initiation Fight: In the Tuala Morn setting (Fantasy Hero), anyone wishing to join a King's warband must challenge a current member to a fair and non-lethal fight. Winning doesn't guarantee acceptance, but losing guarantees rejection.

Glowing Gem: Adventure Wrath of the Seven Horsemen. The scepter of the supervillain Fear has a ruby that glows with an eerie luminescence.

Go-Karting with Bowser: A large part of the Neutral Ground supplement, which is about a social club (later an island resort) for superhumans of all alignments.

Golem: Enemies: The International File included a villain called Kabbalah; a Jewish mystic who commanded a traditional style golem.

The Greatest Style: In the Lucha Libre Hero supplement, all monsters take double damage from lucha libre maneuvers by default ... but that only applies to lucha libre maneuvers. A practitioner of karate, savate, muay thai, or any other martial art who finds himself in a Lucha Hero game will be less effective against monsters because that weakness won't apply to his attacks.

Harmless Freezing: Supplement Gadgets!. The Ice Sprayer weapon freezes its target but does only Stun damage. When the target defrosts they're alive and unharmed.

Heel–Face Turn: Almost the entire Redeemed team from Allies are reformed supervillains, except Scarlet Saber/Blue Wind who is a Civilian Villain using his second costumed identity to play both sides of the fence.

Highly Conspicuous Uniform: VIPER troops have their symbol prominently displayed on their uniforms. Older UNTIL uniforms had the same problem.

Hilarity Ensues: The ending line of a lot of irreverant plot seeds in character supplements is "Wackiness ensues." Usually for ones where an NPC starts dating a PC.

Hitler's Time-Travel Exemption Act: The module "Wings of the Valkyrie" averts this, using as the lynchpin of the adventure the role-playing dilemma of choosing between killing the leaders of Nazi Germany before the Holocaust can be carried out, or preventing the Crapsack World on the brink of complete collapse the rearranged timeline becomes.

Hit Points: Most characters in the HERO System have two kinds of hit points: STUN, and BODY. When you run out of STUN, you're knocked out. When you run out of BODY, you are dying. Automatons can be built with the "has no STUN" power, which means they cannot be knocked out, only killed. In both cases, having even one point left usually means you're just fine. (One important exception: if you take enough STUN damage in one go, you're briefly, well, stunned — with lowered defenses, non-persistent powers turning off, and forced to lose your next action to recover — regardless of how many points you may have remaining.)

Dark Seraph is a supervillain who gained his Hellish powers by performing Human Sacrifices and murdering his colleagues. He takes 2d6 STUN and BODY damage from contact with holy relics and objects.

The super villainess Demonfire is the daughter of a human witch and a demon who once destroyed most of a town, killing its inhabitants, to gain revenge on a single man. She takes 3d6 STUN damage from contact with holy relics.

Supplement Fantasy Hero Companion. All demons have the following disadvantages: Take double Body damage from holy weapons, lose 3-18 Endurance points per 12 seconds in contact with holy ground, and lose 3-18 Stun points per 12 seconds in contact with holy water.

Home Field Advantage: From the supplement Enemies III. The villain Red Rapier knows he isn't really powerful enough to take on superheroes by himself, so he tries to even the odds by luring them onto his own turf. He tries to trick a hero (or heroes) into entering a building he has filled with tricks and traps.

Horn Attack: Many animals in "The Hero System Bestiary" such as buffalo, caribou and triceratops.

The Hero/Rolemaster supplement Mythic Egypt had the requirement of knowing the target's true name for a fair bit of its magic, most notably mind-affecting spells. Djinn (presented as the setting's elf expies rather than the more familiar Genie in a Bottle stereotype and an available player character race) had the problem of all sharing the same true name whose secret had already gotten out...

Intangible Man: For 40 character points, you can buy Desolidification, which lets you walk through walls and ignore the physical world at will. Of course, for a +1/4 Advantage, your enemies can buy any offensive power with "Affects Desolidified Objects."

Intercontinuity Crossover: In a bizarre and unique example, the module "Reality Storm" produced a crossover between Champions and Guardians Of Order's Silver Age Sentinels. The plot featured the two worlds crossing over in a manner that referenced virtually every Crossover Crisis to date, complete with characters from both Game Universes meeting and fighting. As a bonus, the book also included a guide to converting characters from one system to another. This event is considered a part of the Champions continuity; the result is a lot of Writing Around Trademarks where the event will be discussed, but none of the SAS characters or places involved will be explicitly named.

In the adventure The Island of Doctor Destroyer the title island Destruga holds the secret base of Doctor Destroyer, from which he plans to launch a Hypnoray satellite and Mind Control the entire world.

In Classic Organizations, after being destroyed in its original location Neutral Ground relocates to this exact island, turning from a fairly posh club for supers of all kinds into an island resort in the process. Doctor Destroyer's legacy is brought up in the relevant chapter and used as a plot point in at least one example adventure outline.

The Champions II supplement has rules for constructing superhero bases. When choosing a base's location, one option is to build it on an island.

Gadgets!. The Rocket Pack allows powered flight at a speed of 65 m.p.h. in combat and 130 m.p.h. out of combat, with a maximum flight duration of 1 hour.

Enemies. The supervillain Lazer uses one which allowed him to fly at 65 m.p.h. Interestingly it is powered by his own Endurance rather than an onboard fuel supply.

Enemies II. The supervillain Death Commando, a member of Deathstroke, has such a device that allows him to travel up to up to 40 meters before having to be re-charged (more like a jump pack).

Organization Book 2 PRIMUS and DEMON. After DEMON steals the Earth Crown of Krim from PRIMUS headquarters, a Morbane (supervillain) wearing a jet pack flies with it to the local DEMON base.

Journey to the Center of the Mind: Organization Book The Circle and M.E.T.E.. In the adventure "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream", the PCs must enter the mind of a comatose superhero and convince him that he's dreaming and needs to wake up.

Jurisdiction Friction: Between the U.S Government agencies PRIMUS and SAT, and between the U.S. government and UNTIL.

Just Between You and Me: The Coriolis Effect. After the Black Enchantress captures the heroes and takes away their powers she explains her plans to them.

Kaiju: Hero System Bestiary. The Hach-U-Rui are giant Japanese reptiles (minimum of 100 meters tall) that can survive hits by howitzers and may have an energy breath weapon.

Long time villain Professor Muerte was sealed inside his armour which was melted shut, then thrown into the ocean. Of course, No-One Could Survive That. He is dead for good in official continuity, but there was an article in their online newsletter detailing ways to bring him back as undead.

A number of other old characters were killed off for real in a self-admitted housecleaning, such as most of the old villain group Deathstroke.

Knockout Gas: Organization Book 2 PRIMUS and DEMON. Demonflux tries to capture the superhero Sureswift by luring him into a warehouse and flooding it with a sickly-sweet gas that causes unconsciousness.

Meteor Man (currently up to the third incarnation; appropriately, the origin is more or less a straight lift of the Golden Age Green Lantern) and Black Mask (tenth, dating back to the American Revolution)

Doctor Destroyer's magic-using counterpart from another reality has arrived. Cryptic's idea of him already looks like Doctor Fate...

Different editions of the game will also have completely different characters with the same name but completely different origins, such as Vibron who either got his powers from an accident, is a mutant or is an alien from the Andromeda Galaxy.

Lethal Joke Character: Cosmo from Red Doom, who lacks the attention span, creativity or killer instinct to be a truly effective combatant, yet has vast cosmic powers that make him one of the most powerful heroes in the world.

Let's You and Him Fight: Organization Book 2 PRIMUS and DEMON. The DEMON organization's plan to steal the Earth Crown of Krim from PRIMUS headquarters involves tricking PRIMUS into attacking the local superhero group.

Life Energy: Adventure Wrath of the Seven Horsemen. The villain Dread is a summoned wraith that can drain the life force of opponents and thus lower their Constitution score for the duration of the adventure.

Loads and Loads of Rules: In 6th Edition, the core rules got so voluminous that they had to split them into 2 separate bound volumes. Volume 1 is devoted entirely to character creation.

Mad Scientist: Doctor Destroyer, Doctor Timothy Blank and Doctor Draconis, just to name a few.

Until being updated in News of the World, Defender's "thing" was that he refused to acknowledge the existence of magic, despite having a sorceress for a teammate in both versions of the Champions (and a love interest in one of them). (This makes him an interesting mirror of Doctor Destroyer, who acknowledges its existence but is skeptical of anyone who claims mystic powers.)

Taken to the max in the ultra crossover adventure outlined in Allies where villains are trying to establish one over the other as the dominant rule of the universe.

The power Telekinesis can be given the special effect "Magnetic" and the Disadvantage "only affects metallic objects", which would reduce its cost. The disadvantage could be made even greater by limiting it to only affecting iron or iron alloys (such as steel).

In the supplement Enemies III, the super villainess Gaussian had magnetic powers which depend on the planet's magnetic field. She can fire a Magnetic Blast that affect targets wearing metal armor or clothing, create a magnetic force field and fly.

Mama Bear: Organization Book The Circle and M.E.T.E. adventure "The Hatching". Any superhero that gets between the alien mother and its baby is going to be in a world of hurt.

Mind over Matter: Telekinesis can be bought as a Power. Grabbing someone or something telekinetically works just like grabbing someone with your hands, except it can be done at range.

Mind Rape: pretty much the Modus Operandi of Menton and Mentalla. Bonus points to Mentalla who routinely does this to her own teammate Scorpia.

Min-Maxing: At least to some extent built right into the system, given the presence of purchaseable traits (like Skill Enhancers or Power Frameworks) whose entire or at least obvious primary purpose is to simply make others cheaper to buy in turn. Characteristics also have certain "optimal" value breakpoints which the point-based nature of character generation guarantees can be hit as desired, and the highly flexible effect-based power creation system arguably turns getting a certain desired effect for as few points as possible under the rules into something of a legitimate art form. One long time gamemaster, writing a review of the game in Dragon Magazine, explained it this way: "Sure, the players are going to use Min-Maxing to construct their characters. Its expected. Just keep in mind that the GM is encouraged to do the same thing for his villains! Turnabout is fair play, after all.

Misery Builds Character: In the adventure "Deathstroke," the villain group decided to make their agents monitor the base's surveillance cameras instead of letting a computer do it because they felt that the boring duty would "build character".

Most Common Super Power: The comic based on the game came out when comics were starting to include racier imagery, which is definitely on display in the early stuff. That the majority of Heroic's characters are hawt women (as evidenced by the relatively deep digging they did to come up with enough male characters to match the assembled females in the recent relaunch) indicates their strategy hasn't changed much over the years.

Moving Buildings: The Widening Gyre, a steampunk setting for Hero System, has several Walking Towns. If danger approaches, the entire town can unfold legs and leave the area.

Multiple-Choice Past: When he first appeared in Enemies II The Monster was given an extremely vague backstory about how he appeared one stormy night and started murdering people. In later editions of the game the lack of detail became the character's entire hook, providing a readymade physically formidable and psychologically terrifying enemy who can be given any background the GM wants.

Multiple Persuasion Modes: 4th Edition has the skills Bribery, Bureaucratics (dealing with bureaucrats/red tape), Conversation (extracting information casually), High Society (dealing with the wealthy and high class), Interrogation (torture, drugs, mind control etc.), Knowledge/Culture (when dealing with members of that culture), Oratory (speaking to an audience), Persuasion (convincing/influencing individuals), Seduction (gaining trust with companionship and favors, not necessarily sexual), Streetwise (dealing with the underside of society) and Trading (business bargaining).

Multiversal Conqueror: Several. The way this is accomplished is actually given an overview: Most magically merge their native dimensions with conquered ones, but a few (like the technologically-inclined Istvatha V'han, the not-exaggerating-at-all Empress of a Billion Dimensions) install provinces instead.

Mum Looks Like a Sister: Martika Duquesne, evil mother of the heroine Witchcraft, is described as being able to pass for her slightly older sister instead of her mother. Being a fairly powerful sorceress is undoubtedly part of it.

My Brain Is Big: In the adventure V.O.I.C.E. of Doom, the supervillain Le Maistre has a bulging head, is highly intelligent and has psychic powers.

Mythology Gag: Flavour text in 5th and 6th Edition will often make references to earlier editions of the setting

Not Just a Tournament: In The Great Supervillain Contest, the Crimson Claw sets up a competition among the Earth's greatest supervillains to determine which one is the most powerful. The prize is the Emerald Eye of Azog, which will increase the winning villain's already great abilities. What the villains don't know is that once the winner bonds with the Eye, it will take him over and turn him into a gate that will allow dangerous demons to come to Earth. The reason he's holding a contest is the more powerful the villain to hold the Eye, the more efficient the portal will be.

Not Wearing Tights: Had a few characters who specifically refuse to wear costumes, like the Bastion of Budapest from European Enemies whose handlers tried to make him wear one but he hated it and they ultimately agreed to just let him wear a suit.

Omnicidal Maniac: Mechanon, who wants to destroy all organic life. Not that he's a jerk about it, it's just what his programming says to do. Which makes it kind of strange how in the comic, he had his own Igor.

One Super One Powerset: Champions has specifically advised players not to significantly change their PC hero's powers. Champions has also advised players to not get rid of their PC's weaknesses, because they help to define the character.

It's possible to give attacks that normally affect living creatures (such as Energy Blast and Ranged Killing Attack) a disadvantage such as "Doesn't affect living creatures". This allows the character to use the attack freely without worrying about accidentally harming the innocent or violating a Code vs. Killing. It's particularly useful when applied to area effect attacks.

In The Great Super Villain Contest, the villain Annihilator has a 6d6 Ranged Killing Attack Explosion that only affects inorganic objects.

Phlebotinum Battery: Powers can be defined as drawing power from an Endurance Battery, which can be recharged through various means (electricity, sunlight, radiation, and so on).

Planet of Hats: It's possible to invoke this by giving a physiological complicationnote or physiological limitation prior to the 6th edition to a racial template. However, the rulebooks strongly recommend against this, stating that it makes them too much alike.

Playing Card Motifs: Supplement C.L.O.W.N. (Criminal Legion Of Wacky Non-conformists). One of the "villains" of C.L.O.W.N. was the Trump Knight. He had a sceptre that could change to Club, Diamond, Heart or Spade form, with each form having two powers usable in combat.

One of the most powerful human villains in the official game universe is Doctor Destroyer, who wears a suit of powered armor that lets him take out (spelled "kill") whole teams of superheroes.

Organization Book 2 PRIMUS and DEMON. PRIMUS had the Iron Guard and DEMON had two different types of Mechagents (Type I and Type II). All three consisted of agents wearing the stated power armor suits.

Essentially, this is a common archetype because power armor makes for an easy way to get a point cost break on one's powers without having to worry too much about having them simply taken away in combat (as might happen with more accessible focus items).

Psychic Powers: Mental Attack, Mind Control, Mind Scan (the ability to locate a specific mind in a wide area), Telepathy, Mental Illusions, Mind Link (a cheap version of Telepathy that two people have to purchase as a set), and any power bought with the "Based on Mental Combat Value" advantage.

Punch Clock Villain: Armadillo and Ankylosaur who are mainly supervillains to pay for battlesuit upgrades.

Punished for Sympathy: Supplement Red Doom. Yuri "Sputnik" Kamonov is a superpowered member of the Supreme Soviets. He won't use lethal force against opponents unless it's absolutely necessary and there's no other alternative. He also tries to avoid conflict and resolve confrontations by negotiation or non-lethal force. This has caused him to get in trouble with Colonel Vasalov, the leader of the Supreme Soviets, on multiple occasions, and Vasalov has punished him by denying him any promotion.

Quick Draw: Normally, drawing a gun is a Half Phase action, but if a character has the "Fast Draw" talent it can be done instantly. This talent is extremely popular in the Western Hero genre book.

Radiation-Immune Mutants: In Adventurer's Club magazine #2 adventure "What Rough Beast!". A GENOCIDE laboratory mutates a bear into a monster that needs a continuous supply of radiation to maintain its special abilities. It is, of course, immune to damage from radiation. The PCs can most easily defeat it by shutting down the laboratory's malfunctioning nuclear reactor, which is releasing a high level of radioactivity.

Razor Wings: Adventure V.O.I.C.E. of Doom. The villain Goshawk can attack with the slicing feathers on his suit's wings.

Rainbow Motif: The supervillainess Spectra's attacks are color coded. We also have the team Spectrum from Champions Presents #1.

Red Shirt: In the "Legions of Hell" adventure from one of the old Adventurers' Club newsletters the heroes are tasked by a witch to journey to Hell itself and rescue her daughter, and are accompanied by some NPC villains to help out. In reality the villains are there to be periodically picked off to remind the players they're in a very unfriendly place.

Religion Is Right / Religion Is Wrong: Played somewhat oddly in a 4th edition adventure featuring DEMON kidnapping a number of brilliant scientific minds and setting them to work on a series of ancient equations that supposedly either prove or disprove the existence of God. DEMON could actually care less about the exact result — their aim is for the proof to eliminate faith once and for all and thereby release a demonic eldritch abomination with the apparent power to remake all of reality from its cage, and consequently it's up to the player characters' to make sure that the scientists don't complete the proof either way and the question remains unanswered.

The supplement Champions III. After a hero named Revenant killed a gang member and was indicted for 2nd degree murder, he continued operating as a hero under the name Kestrel.

The supplement Allies. Scarlet Saber, a member of the Redeemed, all former supervillains, was not as reformed as the others, and created the identity of "Blue Wind" to continue committing crimes while fighting crime under his first codename.

Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: The Champions universe, as depicted, is very much on the Idealism end, but the setting is also set up so it can be depicted as a lot darker and grittier. Dark Champions is on the other end, albeit still in the same universe. It's like comparing Metropolis to Gotham, really.

Small Steps Hero: A hero is expected to save civilians even if it means the villain makes a clean getaway.

Sorting Algorithm of Evil: As well as the obvious with it being an RPG, the chief villain of the pregenerated universe is the Doctor Doom Expy Doctor Destroyer, who had a protege called Professor Muerte who wore less potent Powered Armor, wasn't quite as smart or ambitious, and whose underlings weren't quite as deadly. It was suggested Professor Muerte might be used as a campaign's most threatening villain until it ran long enough for the players to break into the big leagues and take on Doctor Destroyer.

Spikes of Villainy: In a few 5E books this is a quick recommendation on how to come up with an evil Mirror Universe version of a hero in your game. Spikes and skulls.

Starfish Robots: In the adventure Deathstroke, the super villains' base has small robot drones that resemble insects.

Story-Breaker Power: The rulebook uses a stop-sign icon to mark some powers that can seriously derail plots or be Game Breakers if misused, including things like time travel, psychic powers, and duplication.

Stripperiffic: Pretty much expected in the Superhero genre, but the really awful costumes in New Millennium deserve special mention here. The centerpiece of the Champions: New Millennium cover was Quantum's exposed cleavage.

Stupidity-Inducing Attack: The Drain power (and in older editions, Destruction and Transfer) can be used to lower another character's Intelligence, either temporarily or for a considerable time. Notably, this will have little actual game effect other than to lower Perception and Intelligence-based skill rolls until Intelligence actually hits 0 or less — at which point the character will suddenly have to make (by then actually challenging) Intelligence rolls in order to take any deliberate action at all.

Superheroes in Space: The Galactic Champions sourcebook brings this trope into the Champions Universe setting.

Superhero Packing Heat: Dark Champions is all over this trope like a rash. The series signature character, the Harbinger of Justice, takes it so far as to almost be a parody of the trope.

Supernormal Bindings: Several adventures had superpowered devices that were used by villains to prevent captured heroes from escaping. One applied a backlash attack to any character that used their superpowers to try to escape it.

Swiss Bank Account: In Red Doom, when Colonel Vasalov hires some supervillains to attack the heroes, he promises to pay each of them with $100,000 in a Swiss bank account He's lying.

Swiss Cheese Security: In the course of the original comic mini series, Foxbat, the goofball villain who thinks he lives in a comic book, is able to sashay into both the home of a veteran mage hero and the headquarters of a major hero team with ease.

In the comic strip included in Champions II, Foxbat's plan to break into the Guardians' base involves a helium balloon with Marksman's face drawn on it held in front of the security scanner. Marksman lets "Marksman" in because he wants to know what Foxbat is up to this time.

Tailor-Made Prison: Stronghold is a prison designed to house supervillains. Every prison cell must be tailor-made to nullify its occupant's powers.

Talking Is a Free Action: Deliberately codified into the rules. When laying out the number of Action Phases various activities take, it is explicitly stated that Soliloquies take no time.

Telephone Teleport: The supplement Enemies III. Due to an industrial accident Thunderbolt, or Dr. Howie Reeves' body was changed into electricity. As a result he can teleport long distances along phone lines.

Teleport Interdiction: There's an Advantage for Force Fields (Barriers in 6E) that allows them to block teleportation.

Thief Bag: Supplement C.L.O.W.N. (Criminal Legion of Wacky Non-conformists). In one picture, C.L.O.W.N. members Skate Kate and Toe-Tapper are carrying white bags with dollar signs on them as they flee from a pair of UNTIL agents pursuing them.

Thinks Like a Romance Novel: The villain Tenderheart from Dark Champions believes in the delusion that life works like a romance novel and her criminal career is based around the idea that a superhero will fall in love with her.

This Was His True Form: The Coriolis Effect. The Black Enchantress changes several people into monsters. If the PC heroes kill them, they change back into their (dead) human forms.

The Time of Myths: The setting has a lot of these thanks to both the Hero System's multi-genre support and the need to fill out over 100,000 years of timeline:

The Primeval Times, (Weird / Dark Fantasy, 100,000 - 75,000 BC, The Dark Times and the associated badcrowd gradually fading away, ended when the first Earthly gods realized letting their wars and cataclysms wiping out mortals was a bad idea and departed for other dimensions/planes;

The Turakian Age (Tolkienesque High Fantasy), 73,000 - 65,000 BC, filled with kingdoms and fantasy races, ended in a magical cataclysm in the final battle against Dark Lord Kal-Turak;

And the Age of Gods and Heroes (when most known ancient cultures' myths and legends happened), 10,000 - 500 BC, ended with the ebb of magic and the rise of Rome.

Timmy in a Well: The Hero System Bestiary. Not only is the Communication ability for Animal Companions this trope, but its explanation specifically references it.

Toxic Waste Can Do Anything: The supplement Enemies. One day a truck carrying a load of toxic waste drove by Barney O'Tumey. One of the containers fell out of the truck, broke open and spilled toxic waste all over him. Barney gained the super powers of Super Strength and Immune to Bullets and became the supervillain Shamrock.

Tracking Device: Organization Book 2 PRIMUS and DEMON. The included adventure notes that PRIMUS (an anti-villain U.S. Government agency) puts a transponder inside all captured supervillain devices to assist in tracking them down if they go missing.

Tragic Monster: Mechanon is all but stated to be such in his character PDF. He was originally created to save humanity, but a glitch in the Time Travel process completely wrecked his programming. He now seeks to destroy organic life, even though he isn't actually sure why.

Universal System: One of the earliest examples, if not the earliest. The HERO system underlying Champions was used as the basis of Justice Inc., Fantasy Hero, Espionage!, and Robot Warriors even before 1989. (It was in 1989 that 4th Edition came out, which was the first edition to codify the HERO system in a truly universal manner.)

Multiple villains in early edition products such as Wrath of the Seven Horsemen, V.O.I.C.E. of Doom, The Circle and M.E.T.E., The Great Super Villain Contest and Enemies I-III.

The comics also had a couple villains who were extra vulnerable to light attacks because of the "darkness of their souls." That is they're so completely evil physical light's become extra-damaging to them.

Weaponized Camera: Snapshot, one of the members of C.L.O.W.N., has a high tech camera that can change its target into a photograph.

Weaponized Exhaust: In the supplement Champions 2, the vehicle construction system allowed a vehicle's exhaust to do normal or even killing damage to anyone standing behind it.

Wicked Toymaker: Champions has has least two villainous toymakers who make lethal toys to aid them in their crimes: Dark Harlequin and Punchinello.

A Wizard Did It: The Galactic Champions Sourcebook reveals that a high amount ambient magic is required for superpowers to work, otherwise their abilities are really impossible. This also reveals that an experiment by Nazi wizards caused the boon of Superheroes that exist in their universe.

Wizarding School: Organization Book The Circle and M.E.T.E.. The Circle is a group of superheroes who are being trained by The Master in magical techniques.

The covers of a good couple supplements for 4E showed members of the Champions, especially Defender, getting their butts kicked by the menace contained within its pages. It was probably to make buyers go, "Wow, these guys are so bad they took out the Champions!" but it ended up making the Champions, especially Defender, look like B-listers.

There was a running gag amongst the fandom that if Seeker appeared unconscious on the cover, then it was a good book. The cover European Enemies (widely considered the worst Hero supplement ever published), conversely, featured Seeker kicking one of the featured villains.

In a possible tribute, the cover art for 5E's DEMON: Servants Of Darkness featured Defender chained to an altar about to be sacrificed, and Witchcraft charging to the rescue. Almost justified in that 5E Defender is sorta clueless on this whole "magic" thing ... and he and Witchcraft have feelings for one another.

Year Outside, Hour Inside: The Coriolis Effect. Doctor Arcane seemed to spend only a prolonged instant in Ch'andarra's realm, but when he returned to Earth five years had passed.

Your Mime Makes It Real: An Illustration in the UNTIL Superpowers Database sourcebook showed a supervillain with a mime motif doing the 'glass box' bit to set up a force wall between himself and two superheroes.

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